Lawsuit over suicide of Lancaster prison inmate settled

LANCASTER -- A lawsuit filed by the parents of a central Pennsylvania man who hanged himself in prison 51/2 years ago has been settled for $700,000.

The May 4 settlement came after three days of a Lancaster County trial over the 2006 death of Joseph Keohane, the Lancaster Sunday News reported Sunday.

Officials said Keohane, 22, hanged himself on Thanksgiving Day in 2006 from a bedsheet he attached to a vent grate in his prison cell. The suit alleged that he followed through on repeated threats to kill himself just hours after being released from suicide watch.

Under the agreement, the county's insurer will pay $700,000, less the county's $25,000 deductible, to Keohane's parents and their attorney, Kevin Allen, the Lancaster Sunday News said.

Officials told the paper that the settlement was the largest known in an individual case against a county agency.

Keohane's parents had turned their son in to police in hopes of sparing him more harm to himself because of his mental illness and drug dependence. Allen said his clients felt that the most important "was to demonstrate that their son wasn't protected and should have been."

"They really believed where else are you going to be safer than where you're watched 24 hours a day?" he said.

He said the trial and settlement had proven his clients' case.

"I think it was pretty clear that our client was at significant risk for suicide and they knew or should have known about that and they didn't protect him," he said.

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But attorney David MacMain, who represented the county, characterized the outcome as a neutral resolution of "a very sad situation."

"It was emotional and difficult for everyone involved," he said. "A settlement is a compromise by both sides. We resolved the case and put what was a very tragic situation behind us."

Scott Martin, chairman of the county commissioners and the prison board, said he wishes that all of the evidence had been presented before the case was settled, although he called the case "devastating" to all involved.

"I'm not a proponent of placing that blame at the feet of other individuals," he said. "If it had happened in someone's home, would you hold them accountable?"

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